When browsing over at Amazon, I came across a new Hitachi compact brushless drill. There are 2 kits – DS18DBFL2 with 2x 1.5Ah battery packs, and DV18DBFL2 hammer drill with 2x 3.0Ah compact battery packs, and a bare tool (drill/driver), DS18DBFL2P4.

The new Hitachi 18V brushless drill looks pretty straightforward. It delivers up to 620 in-lbs in a compact package.

Keyless all-metal 1/2″ chuck

620 in-lbs max torque

1800 RPM Max

22+1 clutch settings

LED work light

Belt hook

Balanced design and ergo grip

Length: 6-29/32″

Weight: 2.7 lbs w/o battery

On-tool battery indicator

As with some other Hitachi drill/drivers, the new compact brushless model has an optical trigger switch, which offers more responsive variable speed actuation, as well as greater wear resistance for the trigger assembly. In other words, enhanced control and greater longevity.

12 Comments

This is why Hitachi doesn’t sell well – where is the company’s marketing coverage for this and their other tools? No press release, no advertising, no representatives at stores, nothing of the kind. Not even a badly done YouTube video with overly loud ‘knarly’ background music. You had to run across it by chance. How does Hitachi hope to get any market share without promoting their products?

Hitachi is one of the world’s biggest companies . Power tools are probably somewhere down on their list . They build heavy ships equipment and nuclear power plants . I doubt they care much about the tools.

They likely wanted Metabo to improve their presence in the European market.

Their power tool business – is part of a larger sector that includes medical electronics, test and measurement equipment, and semiconductor processing equipment. The entire sector accounted for 10% of their revenues in 2015

Perhaps it’s up to the big box stores that handle them. When I go into Home Depot, I see lots of PR for Milwaukee and their other brands. Ace is always promoting Craftsman as well as their other tools, lots of visibility. It’s like these two companies are excited about these tools. Lowe’s doesn’t do as good a job with Hitachi. I’ve gotten some of my best tool deals at Lowe’s on closeouts and sales, however, so I’m not putting them down, just an observation. I like their staff better than the local HD staff. This may just be a local variation, though I’m not sure.